Let Freedom Ring Must Reads

April 28, 2016

Five Reasons to Impeach IRS Chief John Koskinen

By Sarah Feldpausch

Taxpayers deserve a transparent and accountable government. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has shown active neglect to his duties with respect to uncovering the truth in the Lois Lerner conservative targeting scandal. The agency has continually displayed extraordinary lack of responsibility in many capacities.

Koskinen has proved to be incapable of managing taxpayer funds and protecting these individuals from identity theft and fraud. In addition, he has even lied to members of Congress and the American people. Clearly, the agency is in desperate need of reform and new leadership.

Below are five reasons to impeach IRS Commissioner Koskinen:

1. The agency continually obstructed the investigation into the Lois Lerner targeting scandal. The IRS failed to search five of six possible sources of electronic media for Lois Lerner’s emails. The only source they bothered to search — her hard drive — was destroyed after a brief search deemed information unrecoverable. As House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) noted, under Koskinen’s leadership, the agency has failed time and time again to comply with Congressional investigators.

2. The agency ignoreda preservation order by destroying 422 tapes in the Lerner case. The tapes contained as many as 24,000 Lois Lerner emails and were erased eight months after Congressional investigators requested all emails to and from Lois Lerner.

3. Koskinen lied to members of Congress in a House Oversight Committee hearing, saying Lois Lerner’s email could not be found. In reality, the agency destroyed thousands of emails to cover the targeting scandal. House Oversight Committee Chairman Chaffetz stated:

“Mr. Koskinen failed to testify truthfully. The statements that he made to Congress were false. It is imperative that this committee pursue all constitutional remedies. That may include contempt and it even may include impeachment of Mr. Koskinen.”

4. The agency failed to protect taxpayer data after a report found the IRS failed to screen 2.2 million tax returns for identity theft and fraud. In addition, there have been multiple reports that warned of vulnerability to taxpayer personal information. A 2014 report stated:

“Taxpayers could be exposed to the loss of privacy and to financial loss and damages resulting from identity theft or other financial crimes.”

5. The IRS failed to properly prioritize funding even when there was no budgetary pressure. According to the Annual Report to Congress released by the National Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS has completely failed to get its act together. According to the report: